The Utdrendans have spoken, and everything has changed as a consequence. People normally avoid the fog surrounding the cursed Kingdom of Mar, but now they are asking sixteen-year-old Kaia Stone to venture into it. The Utdrendans implied that there is something special about Kaia. They claimed that she could help free the land; she need only carry out their instructions and deliver a message to … the Marian king.
Mar, however, is a land in which dark secrets abound, and many will stop at nothing to ensure that it remains forever cursed. Determined to work against Kaia, unfriendly forces have already begun to gather.
Will Kaia choose to abandon the only life she’s ever known—perhaps indefinitely—in pursuit of the greater good…in pursuit of her purpose?
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Capering on Glass Bridges is a YA high fantasy novel. In it, sixteen-year-old Kaia Stone is asked to deliver a message to the king of a cursed land. If obeyed, the message should undo the curse on the people and land. Risking much for a people she doesn’t know, she journeys with a group of companions into the dangerous land to deliver the message.
I really enjoyed Capering on Glass Bridges. The tone of the book felt relatively lighthearted, and the cheery relationship of Kaia and her sisters and companions added to the tone and made me feel as if I had stepped into a wonderful family. There were some hard things that happened in this book also — death, terrible violence, monsters — and the tone changed sometimes to reflect that.
The plot brought up some interesting topics. What if our evil actions reflected on our appearances, and the more evil we committed, the more monstrous we became? It is a frightening thought to contemplate, and it reminds me to do good because sin is truly terrible and simultaneously gladdens me to not have my sins reflected by my appearance. It was a thought-provoking topic that appeared in this book, and it added depth and perhaps a moral to the story.
I enjoyed this story very much and would recommend it to fans of YA fantasy. I give two warnings though: there is a decent amount of violence and it ends on a cliffhanger. I hope to read the next book soon…
I received a complementary copy of this book. All opinions are my own, and I am not obligated to provide a positive review.
Mar, however, is a land in which dark secrets abound, and many will stop at nothing to ensure that it remains forever cursed. Determined to work against Kaia, unfriendly forces have already begun to gather.
Will Kaia choose to abandon the only life she’s ever known—perhaps indefinitely—in pursuit of the greater good…in pursuit of her purpose?
My one comment about the description is that it feels it gives a bit too much away but you realise as soon as you go into the book it does not give it away, it actually helps you understand the book a lot more.
When I was going into this story I was a little confused, we start with a pairing ceremony and I was like what is this? To be honest I only have a slight idea what it was for, the thing they are paired to I didn’t know what it is or what purpose it serves but throughout the book the thing (I really can’t remember the word she used for them) it helped them through the story! It was different I liked it!
My one thing was we didn’t get much world building when we see Kaia at home before she leaves to go on this journey we don’t really know much about it but it makes up when they go to Mar and travel through because we get a brilliant world building through this and I honestly felt so connected to the world. We don’t know a time era that is set either, I have no idea which time era it was but from the way they speak it seems old but of course it is set in a fantasy world but the way they spoke just led me to believe it was an older speaking time era.
One thing I really liked was Kaia and Elaine they were sisters and oh my god the sister bond between them the fact she wanted to go with her sister to make sure she was ok it was so cute and I loved it. It’s not often you see nice sister bonding so it was lovely to see.
It was so interesting learning about the world as the characters learned what they had to do so we was we the information was being delivered to the characters, it kept me turning the page and wanting to know more, I read this book in one setting I did not want to put it down. After not reading for a month this was the perfect book to pick up to start again.
I felt this novel was more plot driven rather than setting, it was driven a little by the characters more to the end but it was still interesting to read and although at sometimes I missed the setting it still worked it being a plot and character driven novel I liked it all the same.
The banter, oh my the banter. We get to know a few Princes in this story and the banter between them is brilliant the fact they are all half-brothers it makes it funny and reading this it did make me fall in love with those characters more especially as at times I struggled to connect with Kaia so being able to connect with the Princes made me enjoy the novel a lot more. What was also amazing is that there was NO romance! Finally a fantasy novel that does not go around romance I kind of expected her to fall for one of them but when she didn’t I was like yes. Finally. So that was a big plus for me.
Jessica’s writing oh my god I loved it, the writing was so easy to follow and inviting to read at no point did I struggle to go with the writing it flowed and it was beautiful.
THAT ENDING THOUGH. I can’t talk about it. Just I didn’t see it coming and oh my it slapped me in the first, I kind of just stopped reading and stared at my kindle for a bit shocked. It was brillliant.
If you haven’t picked it up yet but it sounds like something you might like I say try it, like it’s only 200 pages but it doesn’t feel like it’s too short or too long it’s perfect so give it a try!